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Richard Hunt

President, Chief Executive Officer

Richard Hunt is President and CEO of the Consumer Bankers Association (CBA) representing the retail banking industry, including the nation’s largest bank holding companies as well as regional and super community banks.

Since his appointment in 2009, Hunt has led CBA and its members through an unprecedented regulatory environment and an era of technological transformation for the industry. He has also shaped CBA into anything but a typical trade association: one focused on the new era of retail banking. Through an overhaul of CBA’s mission and focus, Hunt has doubled annual revenue, increased membership substantially, and realigned CBA’s committee structure to tackle the industry’s most important issues. In addition, Hunt spearheaded the creation of CBA LIVE – the premier annual event for retail banking executives and oversaw the revamp of CBA’s educational programs to help train the next generation of industry leaders.

Drawing on a unique blend of political and legislative knowledge, industry stakeholders and policymakers count on his candid views to give the keen insight needed in an era of regulatory pressure and uncertainty. Hunt has been called on to testify before Congress, is regularly interviewed by national and trade media, and speaks around the country at various industry conferences.

Prior to joining CBA, Hunt served as senior vice president of federal policy for the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA) and was also the senior managing director of the Securities Industry Association, which merged with the Bond Market Association in 2006 to form SIFMA. In these roles he led major initiatives on investment tax and retirement legislation, and various other financial services issues. Hunt began his career in the U.S. House of Representatives where he spent seven years serving as chief of staff, two years as district manager, and three years as district representative for Congressman Jim McCrery (R-LA). Originally from Louisiana, Hunt is a 1989 graduate of the University of Louisiana, home of the Ragin’ Cajuns, where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in business marketing.

Hunt currently serves as Director-at-Large of the Exchequer Club of Washington, D.C.

Selected Awards and Recognitions

Ranked among the top trade association executives by CEO Update

"Top Lobbyists” by The Hill newspaper

The Hill newspaper’s “100 People to Watch” for the Fall of 2013

"Spirit of Franchising Award” presented by the International Franchise Association (IFA)

U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Association Committee of 100 - comprised of the top leaders of various industry trade associations.

CFPB Struggles to Keep Up with Its Work Many of you may recall CFPB Deputy Director Antonakes' CBA LIVE speech in which he requested bankers consider joining the Bureau. Well, this week we received some interesting context to this plea. In a featured piece on Thursday, a reporter at the American Banker detailed the CFPB's struggle to keep up with its work. Citing an overly ambitious investigatory effort, employment issues, and numerous internal "process" logjams, the article revealed a significant slowdown of new cases the CFPB has opened—in FY2013 the number jumped 7 percent to 160, but fell...

MasterCard Reaches Tentative Agreement with Target for $19 million On Wednesday, an agreement was reached between MasterCard and Target to resolve claims related to Target's 2013 data breach. I am glad to see forward movement in the resolution of costs incurred as a result of the retailer's breach. Going forward, our chief mission should be to achieve a fair, reasonable and uniform data security standard across all industries to better safeguard consumers' sensitive personal and financial information before a breach occurs. Accordingly, I applaud Senators Tom Carper (D-Del.) and Roy Blunt (R-...

April 16, 2015 The Honorable Roy Blunt United States Senate 260 Russell Senate Office Building Washington, DC 20510 The Honorable Thomas Carper United States Senate 513 Hart Senate Office Building Washington, DC 20510 Dear Senator Blunt and Senator Carper: Since 2005, there have been more than 5,000 reported data breaches involving an estimated 675 million records.1 In a single year from 2013 to 2014, the number of breaches increased significantly by over 27 percent. The impetus for strengthening our nation’s data security protections could not be more evident. As such, on behalf of the...